A Perfect Failure
by Unstoppable Cyborg
Summary: It feels like no matter what he does, he just isn't good enough. Ladybug doesn't believe that. Miraculous LadyBug. Written for Magical Girl (and Boy) Challenges's "Magical Quotes Challenge". Contains Lucky Charm/Lady Noir/Adrienette. Rated for mild swearing and mild dark themes. Oneshot. AU and OOC due to being written prior to show.


"Of cource I'm gonna cry... I love cliche! I can get my satisfaction just with cliches!"  
~ Chiyori, Selector Spread WIXOSS

Disclaimer #1: I'm glad I don't own Miraculous LadyBug. If I did, I'd have an entire fandom screaming at me to hurry up. Given how much of a procrastinator I tend to be, this would not be a good thing. We might be getting the show pushed back even more.

Disclaimer #2: I don't own the quote that this is inspired by. Heck, I'd never even heard of Selector Spread WIXOSS until I joined the forum.

* * *

I didn't feel like I deserved to be crying. Other people had more to cry over. Other people were starving and had dead family members. Other people were suffering from fatal diseases, or were wishing they could just die. I, on the other hand, didn't have any of these conditions, or any of the countless other ones that deserved tears far more than mine did.

I was crying because I was a failure. Ladybug had gotten hurt by the mime and who knows how many people had died because I was a failure at being a hero. Marinette had gotten hurt by my bad luck powers because I was a failure at keeping my emotions in check. My parents were furious with me because I was a failure as a student and a son. Failure didn't deserve tears, I had been taught, failure deserved discipline. _Is this how the world will end? Will it end because my generation is filled with people like me, people who are too busy crying and feeling sorry for ourselves like this is some cliched and half-assed excuse for a piece of literature?_ I thought. Sitting down on the snowy rooftop, I brought my knees to my chest and stared into the gray sky. _Why am I the one you chose?_ Plagg didn't answer. He was being unusually quiet. That probably meant that the kwami thought I was a failure as well. I closed my eyes and sobbed at just how stupid everything was.

"You know, I never asked for this. I never asked to be a hero," I said to no one.

 _We've been over this before,_ Plagg said to me, sounding as exhausted physically as I was emotionally. It was getting harder and harder to protect Paris, and the strain was getting to both of us. _If I were to have chosen someone who asked for the ability to wield bad luck, we'd be in a much bigger mess. Oh, and by the way, you're not a failure. You're just doing it wrong._

"That's the same thing," I mumbled. "Besides, if you had chosen someone who had asked for this, Ladybug would probably have a partner who isn't a failure. A partner who could protect her, not that she even needs it, rather than get in her way. A partner that wouldn't let her down with how pathetic he is compared to her."

"Oh, really? Because I wouldn't want anyone else at my side, Adrien. I couldn't ask for a better partner in all of this." Blinking back tears, I turned and stared into Ladybug's sapphire eyes. She sat down next to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. Before I could ask how she knew my real name, she peeled off her spotted domino mask with her other gloved hand, her face changing in those moments from that of one of the girls I love to the other.

"I found out a couple days ago," Ladybug - no, Marinette - said. "I saw you talking to a kwami - I think Tikki called him 'Plague' or something - that looked like a black cat."

"That would be Plagg, although Plague does seem to suit him," I muttered under my breath. She smiled slightly at this.

"Anyway, after that, it suddenly made a lot of sense why my powers don't always work around you properly when we're in civilian mode. It also made sense why, no matter how much I tried to keep the two sides of life separate and to not loosen up a millimeter as Ladybug as to hopefully keep the city as safe as possible, I found myself falling for you as Chat Noir, when you weren't being an annoying flirt, that is, and also comparing the two of you, well, the two sides of you, in my head. I was planning on telling you that night, but then there was that fight with the mime, and then you've just been avoiding me at school lately. Well, more than usual, anyway..." She trailed off, staring ahead into the distance, like she was trying to figure out what to say.

"I was trying to protect you by avoiding you. I mean, that stack of books that fell on you? That was because I failed to keep my emotions in check. All this time, I've been avoiding you because I've been trying to protect you from my curse of bad luck, and also so that if for reason Hawk Moth ever found out my identity, he wouldn't go after you. Then again, I guess you don't even really need protecting since you're perfect at all of this," I said to her. Her eyes widened, then narrowed.

"Did you really think all of this has been easy for me?" Without waiting for me to reply, she continued. "I've been learning all of this on the job, same as you. I guess the only reason why I'm not falling on my face all the time is because of my _good_ luck." My image of Ladybug being a perfect guardian of Paris who was probably off curing cancer in her spare time had been shattered into a million pieces. Also gone were my ideas of Marinette being without a care in the world (other than getting me to date her). She was even more beautiful when not on either of the pedestals.

I noticed tears beginning to form in the corners of her eyes. "Adrien, we have blood on our hands. People have died because we haven't taken down Hawk Moth yet." We let her words sink in, and as much as I wanted to dispute that no, it was all the fault of our adversary, I couldn't. Part of me began to pick apart whether my inability to explain was due to my self-hatred or the amount of conviction she had placed in her words.

Carefully, I wrapped my arms around her as tears rolled down her cheeks; she began to sob into my shirt. _Who in their right mind would choose two teenagers for this big of a burden? There were surely other people out there that could do this. Unless..._ she straightened up and looked into my eyes.

"Do you think that we might be the only ones?" Marinette said suddenly, practically reading my thoughts. The idea that we might be the only ones able to fight akumas and wield luck scared me; more than likely it scared her as well.

"Yeah, or if we aren't the only ones, then the world is so messed up that the best choice is two teenagers who are in way over their heads. Of there are others, then I guess they're clinically insane or confined to a bed or elderly or just ki- no, that one still describes us - just really young kids," I rambled, feeling the tears come back to my eyes. When we were both better, both only holding each other because we loved each other and didn't feel like letting go rather than because we feared that if we didn't anchor ourselves to each other we'd spin out of control and the world would fall apart, it would be time to get some answers.

If this were some cliched love story, she would have kissed me that night on that rooftop, taking away the curse. This was not some cliched love story. This was not some story at all, but rather real life with real stakes. And thus, we sat there for a time that may have lasted for an eternity, sobbing into each other's shoulders at just how messed up all of this was. We were far from perfect, but at least neither of us were failures.


End file.
